ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik emphasised that justice should be dispensed without any discrimination and that all political leaders should be treated equally under law.

Addressing press conference, he stressed need for judicial reforms as currently judiciary’s impartiality was being “compromised”. He said judge should remain impartial and “Political biases” should not reflect in verdicts. He cited Justice Athar Minallah’s opinion that “Judges should not be politicians in robes”.

Minister referred to apex court bench which heard provincial assemblies’ election case, raising question over its Constitution. Number of judges in bench was first reduced from nine to seven and then to five, he added.

Musadik Malik said, “Justice should be equal for all and personal biases should not influence judicial system.” He, however, pointed out that leadership of different political parties were not being treated equally, citing example of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who made ‘hundreds of court appearances’ without getting any relief.

Same was case for other PML-N leaders, while on other hand, Imran Khan was continuously getting bails, he added. “Discriminatory treatment”, he said, was also evident in case of business tycoon Malik Riaz, who had allegedly given 450 kanals of land to Imran Khan and in return, got benefits of billions of rupees from Imran Khan.

He mentioned case of Arif Naqvi, who under agreement was bound to invest billions of dollars in power sector, but he was let scot free by former Prime Minister after receiving two to three million pounds from him.

There was such sorry state of affairs causing huge losses to national exchequer, but Imran Khan was persistently being bailed out, he added. Legislative bill regarding suo moto powers, he said would strengthen institution with involvement of senior judges.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 11 2023

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